Possible Misreading in 1 Maccabees 7:34 in Light of Its Biblical Model

Home , 1 Maccabees, Books of the Maccabees, Megillat Taanit

JBL 138, no. 4 (2019): 777–789 https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1384.2019.5

matan orian [email protected] Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 8410501, Israel

First Maccabees 7:34 employs four verbs to describe the offensive speech by Nicanor, the Seleucid general, addressed to the Jewish elders and priests. The third verb indicates that Nicanor defiled his audience. While this has led scholars to associate 1 Maccabees with the Jewish concept of gentile impurity, several factors suggest that, at this point, an error found its way into the Greek translation from the original Hebrew. The present argument comprises three steps. First, I use the biblical Sennacherib story, featured in the background of the Nicanor episode in 1 Maccabees, as a means of reconstructing the relevant original Hebrew verb employed by 1 Maccabees. Second, I suggest a possible misreading of one letter on the part of the Greek translator. Finally, I propose that a similar, earlier verse in 1 Maccabees, 1:24b, may have been conducive to the translator’s commission of this mistake, thus offering an insight into his way of thinking.

I. A Verb Clearly out of Context

First Maccabees 7:34 employs four verbs to describe the insulting nature of the speech by Nicanor, the Seleucid general, directed at the Jewish elders and the priests of the Jerusalem temple who emerged from the temple to greet him: “he mocked them, derided them, defiled them, and spoke arrogantly” (ἐμυκτήρισεν αὐτοὺς καὶ κατεγέλασεν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐμίανεν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐλάλησεν ὑπερηφάνως).1 The third verb, “defile,” plainly differs from the other verbs in this verse: it does not relate to the nature of the speech but rather to a cultic or ritual consequence of some physical act committed by Nicanor. Such an act, however, remains unspecified,2

1 All translations from Hebrew provided in this article are mine, unless otherwise specified. Translation of Greek verbs is based on LSJ. 2 Elia S. Artom speculated that perhaps Nicanor committed a disgraceful act (TheApocryphal Books [Hebrew] [Tel Aviv: Yavneh, 1958], 1:48).

777

This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. 778 Journal of Biblical Literature 138, no. 4 (2019) and the fourth and final verb (accompanied by an adverb) returns to the descrip- tion of Nicanor’s speech. At face value, the use here of “defile” would appear to be out of context. The following observations further reinforce this impression: 1. Why would Nicanor constitute a source of defilement? Rabbinic literature, a Jewish corpus with a developed concept of gentile impurity,3 tells of a figure— variously a king, an Arab, an Arab king, or a foreign ruler—who spoke with a high priest and accidently spat upon him, rendering him impure and hence temporarily unfit for service.4 Consequently, in explaining the source of the defilement in 1 Macc 7:34, commentators lean heavily on this story.5 Yet 1 Maccabees shows little sympathy toward gentiles.6 It therefore would not have hesitated to refer to

3 Christine E. Hayes, Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities: Intermarriage and Conversion from the Bible to the Talmud (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 122–31. 4 See t. Yoma 3:20 (Lieberman ed., 248); Avot of Rabbi Nathan, recension A 35 (Schechter ed., 104), b. Yoma 47a; y. Meg 1:9 (72a) and parallels. Compare t. Niddah 5:3 (Zuckermandel ed., 645); and see Adolf Büchler, “The Levitical Impurity of the Gentile in Palestine before the Year 70,” JQR 17 (1926): 1–81, here 4–9; Gedalyahu Alon, “The Levitical Uncleanness of Gentiles,” in Jews, Judaism and the Classical World: Studies in Jewish History in the Times of the Second Temple and Talmud, trans. Israel Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1977), 146–89, here 153, 165; and Saul Lieberman, Tosefta Ki-Fshuṭah: A Comprehensive Commentary on the Tosefta, part 4, Order Moed [Hebrew] (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1962), 805–6. 5 John R. Bartlett (The First and Second Books of the Maccabees, CBC [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973], 101) and Jonathan A. Goldstein (I Maccabees: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 41 [Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976], 327, 340) even translated the verse accordingly, namely, that Nicanor “spat on them,” and “rendered them unclean with his spit,” respectively. Others, who adhere to the translation “defiled them,” adopt the “spit thesis” in an accompanying note: Hugo Bévenot, Die beiden Makkabäerbücher, HSAT (Bonn: Hanstein, 1931), 99; Félix-Marie Abel, Les livres des Maccabées, Ebib (Paris: Gabalda, 1949), 140; Uriel Rappaport, The First Book of Maccabees: Introduction, Hebrew Translation, and Commentary [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2004), 216; and Daniel J. Harrington, First and Second Macca bees, New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament 12 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2010), 48–51. Quite a few scholars mention that the medieval Hebrew text Josippon says explicitly that “Nicanor spat against the Sanctuary” (David Flusser, The Josippon, Edited with an Introduction, Commentary, and Notes [Hebrew], 2 vols. [Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1978–1981] 1:104). See Johann M. A. Scholz, Die Bücher der Makkabäer (Frankfurt am Main: Barrentrapp, 1833), 107; Carl L. W. Grimm, Das erste Buch der Maccabäer, KEH (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1853), 115; Carl F. Keil, Commentar über die Bücher der Makkabäer (Leipzig: Dörffling & Franke, 1875), 133; Büchler, “Levitical Impurity,” 33 n. 83; Abraham Kahana, The Apocryphal Books [Hebrew], 2 vols. (Tel Aviv: M’qoroth, 1937), 2:133; Abel, Les livres des Maccabées, 140; and Solomon Zeitlin in his commentary accompanying Sidney Tedesche, The First Book of Maccabees: An English Translation (New York: Harper & Bros., 1950), 142. Regarding the effect of rabbinic literature on the Hebrew Josippon, see Flusser, Jossipon, 2:112–15; Shulamit Sela, The Arabic Josippon [Hebrew], 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute and Tel Aviv University, 2009), 1:81–84. 6 Daniel R. Schwartz, “The Other in I and II Maccabees,” in Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity, ed. Graham N. Stanton and Guy G. Stroumsa (Cambridge: Cam bridge University Press, 1998), 30–37.

gentile impurity, had it been familiar with the concept. Nevertheless, apart from this proposed, highly incidental reference, 1 Maccabees fails to mention gentile impurity or otherwise indicate its existence.7 Thus, attributing the concept of gentile impurity to 1 Maccabees appears to be anachronistic. 2. Does the text of 1 Maccabees otherwise support Nicanor’s defilement of the priests and the elders? Christine Hayes noted that in 1 Macc 7:36, only two verses after Nicanor allegedly defiles the priests, the latter return to the temple and pray between the altar and the vestibule, a place accessed only by priests in a state of ritual purity—a clear indication that they had not been defiled.8 3. Do other ancient Hebrew versions of Nicanor’s speech support the reading “defile”? The 13th of Adar, commemorating Nicanor’s defeat by the Hasmoneans, is listed in the Scroll of Fasting, a brief listing of happy occasions when fasting is forbidden (hence, Taanit, “fasting”) written in Aramaic and dating from the Sec- ond Temple period. The list is cited by rabbinic literature and accompanied by a later Hebrew scholion in two recensions, titled Parma and Oxford in modern research.9 Like 1 Maccabees, Scholion P (Parma) to the 13th of Adar also describes ומחרף ומגדף … דבר :Nicanor’s disparaging speech. It uses three verbs and an adverb ,The first two verbs, in the present participle, apparently used as synonyms .בגאיות denote abusive speech: (Nicanor was) “blaspheming and reviling.” The third verb, in the past tense, “spoke,” together with the accompanying adverb, denotes arrogant speech.10 A parallel reference in the Palestinian Talmud adds to this string another to spurn” or “to slander”)—and thus contains four verbs (in the past“) נאץ—verb -and he blas“) וחירף וגידף וניאץ … דיבר באשמה :tense), exactly as in 1 Macc 7:34 phemed and reviled and slandered … spoke in accusation”).11 Accordingly, the

7 Even Alon, a prominent advocate of a prerabbinic Jewish concept of gentile impurity, was careful to set the terminus post quem for this concept in the middle of the first century BCE, that is, in the later Hasmonean period, several decades after the composition of 1 Maccabees (“Levitical Uncleanness of Gentiles,” 165, 167, 187). On the dominant opinion that 1 Maccabees dates to the last three decades of the second century BCE, see Rappaport, First Book of Maccabees, 60–61. 8 Hayes, Gentile Impurities, 52. Hannan Birenboim attempts to resolve the conundrum by stating that not all of the priests were defiled (“Gentile Impurity in Ancient Judaism” [Hebrew], Cathedra 139 [2011]: 8–30, here 18 n. 84). 9 For a general review, see Vered Noam, “Megillat Taanit—The Scroll of Fasting,” in The Literature of the Sages, part 2, Midrash and Targum, Liturgy, Poetry, Mysticism, Contracts, Inscriptions, Ancient Science and the Languages of Rabbinic Literature, ed. Shmuel Safrai et al., CRINT 2.3 (Assen: Van Gorcum; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006), 339–62. :arrogance”), see Vered Noam, Megillat Taanit“) גאוה in the sense of גאיות On the word 10 Versions, Interpretation, History, with a Critical Edition [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2003), and arrogant speech, see Zeph 2:8. Scholion ,גדף ,חרף For a biblical combination of the verbs .155 O (Oxford) and b. Taanit 18b contain only the arrogant speech of Nicanor in their respective versions of the Nicanor story. 11 Y. Ta anit 2:13 (66a) // Megillah 1:6 (70c), pp. 717 and 743, respectively, in the Palestinian Talmud edition of the Academy of the Hebrew Language (Jerusalem, 2001). In Megillah 1:3 (70c),

This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. 780 Journal of Biblical Literature 138, no. 4 (2019) integrated recension of the scholion to the Scroll of Fasting uses at this point the same four verbs and an adverb (denoting arrogance); the first three verbs are pres- ומחרף ומגדף ומנאץ ... דבר בגאוה :ent participles and the fourth is in the past tense (“and he was blaspheming and reviling and slandering … spoke in arrogance”).12 A major difference between the rabbinic versions and 1 Macc 7:34, however, is that in 1 Maccabees Nicanor verbally abuses the priests and elders, whereas the rabbinic versions lack any direct object for his disparagement. Based on textual analysis of 1 Maccabees and these parallel Hebrew versions of the Nicanor story, Vered Noam identifies two early branches of the story:13 one shared by 1 Maccabees and the Palestinian Talmud, and the other, represented by Scholion P (and the Babylonian Talmud). The latter, therefore, constitutes an alter- native, authentic Hebrew version of the Nicanor story, independent of 1 Macca- bees. Relevant to our discussion, both rabbinic versions of the Nicanor speech employ verbs that relate to the abusive nature of the speech and hence reinforce the incongruity of “defile” in 1 Macc 7:34. This conclusion would be further reinforced if indeed an affinity exits between the Palestinian Talmud version and the Hebrew text of 1 Maccabees.

II. The Proposed Thesis

Hayes’s solution was to translate ἐμίανεν in 1 Macc 7:34 as “abused,” and she goes on to explain: “Nicanor ‘abused’ the priests by mocking them and by blaspheming against them and God’s house.”14 First, contrary to Hayes’s explanation, no causal relationship exists between ἐμίανεν and the two preceding verbs in this verse, or between it and the following verse (1 Macc 7:35), which contains Nicanor’s

change places. Note that in the Palestinian Talmud, the respective adverb stresses ניאץ and גידף “accusation,” rather than “arrogance.” ומחרף ומגדף Noam, Megillat Taanit, 118–19. For an identical rabbinic combination of 12 in relation to Titus, see Avot of Rabbi Nathan, recension B, 7; and Meir Ben Shahar, “Titus ומנאץ in the Holy of Holies,” in Josephus and the Rabbis [Hebrew], by Tal Ilan et al., 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2017), 2:741–68, here 743, 762. 13 Vered Noam, Shifting Images of the Hasmoneans: Second Temple Legends and Their Recep tion in Josephus and Rabbinic Literature, trans. Dena Ordan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 55. On the Nicanor saga in rabbinic literature, see also Menahem Kister, “Back and Forth: Aggadot and Midrashic Methods in the Literature of the Second Temple Period and in Rabbinic Literature” [Hebrew], in Higayon L’Yona: New Aspects in the Study of Midrash, Aggadah and Piyut in Honor of Prof. Yona Fraenkel, ed. Joshua Levinson, Jacob Elbaum, and Galit Hazan-Rokem (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2006), 231–59, here 234. 14 In this interpretation, Hayes (Gentile Impurities, 52) follows George D’Oyly and Richard Mant, who over two centuries ago translated ἐμίανεν here as “abused shamefully” and explained: “Namely, he defiled their ears with blasphemous words” (The Holy Bible according to the Authorized Version: With Notes, Explanatory and Practical, 3 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon, 1817], 2:871).

threat to the temple. Second, Hayes does not provide any substantiation for such a possible meaning of μιαίνω. Third, this Greek verb is used on four additional occasions in 1 Maccabees (1:46, 63; 4:45; 14:36), all in the sense of actual defilement (as opposed to the verbal abuse suggested by Hayes).15 Hence, the question remains: What prompted the Greek ἐμίανεν in 1 Macc 7:34? I maintain that the third verb in the original Hebrew of 1 Macc 7:34 was prob- qal “to be) חנף to taunt, reproach”), but the Greek translator read it as“) חרף ably polluted”; hiphil “to pollute,” mostly by bloodshed). In what follows, therefore, I will discuss the different meaning of these two Hebrew verbs in the relevant context of 1 Macc 7:34. I will first present my argument as to why the Hebrew verb used Next, I will present the case for a possible misreading on .חרף here may have been the part of the translator, who, furthermore, may even have been predisposed to instead. Finally, I will offer my suggestion as to why, in that case, he chose חנף read to translate it as μιαίνω.

III. The Biblical Sennacherib Affair as a Clue to the Hebrew Text of 1 Maccabees 7:34

Along with other scholars, I have noted that God’s salvation of Jerusalem in the biblical Sennacherib siege story plays an important role in Hasmonean and post-Hasmonean Jewish literature.16 The effect of this biblical episode on the Nica- nor story in 1 Maccabees (and in its ancient Jewish parallels)17 is particularly prominent. There is an apparent allusion to this biblical affair in 1 Macc 7:41, as well as

15 See also 1 Macc 4:43 (μιασμός in the sense of the Shikutz, i.e., the idol or idolatrous cultic object that was placed in the temple under the persecution), 13:50 (μιάσματα in the sense of idols); and Robert Parker, Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), 3. Roman Wilk suggests that Nicanor’s words profaned the temple (“The Abuse of Nicanor’s Corpse” [Hebrew], Sidra 8 [1992]: 53–57, here 55 n. 12). The text, however, states explicitly that Nicanor defiled the priests. Furthermore, “to profane” is rendered in 1 Maccabees by βεβηλόω and its derivatives, occurring ten times: 1:43, 45, 48, 63; 2:12, 34; 3:51; 4:38, 44, 54. Note also that 1 Macc 7:42 fails to attach any practical, cultic implication to Nicanor’s subsequent explicit threat to the temple (in 7:35) and sums it up as κακῶς ἐλάλησεν, lit., “he spoke ill” (against the temple). 16 Menahem Kister, “Legends of the Destruction of the Second Temple in Avot De-Rabbi Nathan” [Hebrew], Tarbiz 67 (1998): 483–529, here 513–17; Gerbern S. Oegema, “Sennacherib’s Campaign and Its Reception in the Time of the Second Temple,” in Sennacherib at the Gates of Jerusalem: Story, History and Historiography, ed. Isaac Kalimi and Seth Richardson, CHANE 71 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 325–45; Matan Orian, “Hyrcanus II versus Aristobulus II and the Inviolability of Jerusalem,” JSQ 22 (2015): 205–42, here 236–37. 17 In addition to the scholion to the Scroll of Fasting and the Palestinian Talmud, mentioned above, 2 Macc 8:19 and 15:22 also refer to this biblical episode. In fact, Arie van der Kooij observed that the latter reference is a quotation of Isa 37:36 LXX (“The Use of the Greek Bible in II Macca bees,” JNSL 25.2 [1999]: 127–38, here 133).

This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. 782 Journal of Biblical Literature 138, no. 4 (2019) the display of Nicanor’s right hand in 7:47 (cf. 2 Macc 14:33; 15:30, 32–33)—a clear reference to Isa 10:32.18 The Isaian verse was accepted in other Judean Hebrew writings of the same period (apart from 1 Maccabees) as a reference to Sennach- erib.19 The analogy to Sennacherib is further accentuated in the Hasmonean context through identification of the Assyrians with the Seleucids.20 Against this background, it is probably not a coincidence that the stories of both the biblical Sennacherib and Nicanor contain disparaging speech of the foreign enemy. In other words, it would be reasonable to assume that the author of 1 Maccabees articulated Nicanor’s arrogant and scornful speech in 7:34 based on the arrogant and scornful message of Sennacherib and his emissaries. Thus, the biblical verbs employed to describe the Assyrian speech (in 2 Kings, Isaiah, and 2 Chronicles), may well have been repeated in the original Hebrew text of 1 Macc 7:34. Since my argument involves a Greek translation from Hebrew, attention to the LXX translation of the relevant biblical verbs is warranted. -is dominant in the bibli חרף As shown clearly in the following table, the verb cal Sennacherib story,21 where it is also employed in conjunction with or even ,see 2 Kgs 19:6 // Isa 37:6), “to revile,” or, following the LXX) גדף synonymous with appear together also in the ancient גדף and חרף ,to blaspheme.” Unsurprisingly“

18 As pointed out by Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, CEJL (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2008), 62; and Kister, “Back and Forth,” 235, pace Robert Doran, who, based on the difference in language between 2 Maccabees and Isa 10:32, concluded that there is no reference by the former to the latter (2 Maccabees: A Critical Commentary, Hermeneia [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012], 280 n. 10). Noam (Shifting Images, 46) suggests that, although 1 Maccabees refers eight times to the Temple Mount as “Mount Zion,” the occurrence of Mount Zion in 1 Macc 7:33 also echoes Isa 10:32. On “Mount Zion” as the temple in 1 Maccabees, see Goldstein, I Maccabees, 278; and David Goodblatt, Elements of Ancient Jewish Nationalism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 176. 19 That is, Sir 48:18, and perhaps also Pesher on Isaiah A (4Q161 = 4QpIsaª(; see Hanan Eshel, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State, SDSSRL (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 97 n. 10. Modern research has proved that this specific prophecy of Isaiah concerns not Sennache rib but rather the campaign of Sargon II against Samaria in 720 BCE; see Shawn Z. Aster, “The Historical Background of the Prophecy in Isaiah 10:28–32” [Hebrew], Judea and Samaria Studies 17 (2008): 25–35. 20 Orian, “Hyrcanus II versus Aristobulus II,” 236 n. 87; Eshel, Dead Sea Scrolls, 171 n. 27; Deborah L. Gera, Judith, CEJL (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014), 116; Andrew Teeter, “Isaiah and the Kings of As/Syria in Daniel’s Final Vision: On the Rhetoric of Inner-Scriptural Allusion and the Hermeneutics of ‘Methodological Exegesis’,” in A Teacher for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam, ed. Eric F. Mason et al., 2 vols., JSJSup 153 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 1:169–99. See, however, 4Q161 as an example of the use of a biblical text concerning the Assyrians in connection with a Ptolemaic threat to Jerusalem. 21 It is also dominant in the biblical episode of David and Goliath (and is likewise translated as ὀνειδίζω in the LXX), which has echoes in the biblical Sennacherib story and in the Nicanor and its semantic field in חרף story in 1 Maccabees, as shown by Noam, Shifting Images, 47. On the Bible, see n. 28 below.

Verse MT NEB/NKJV LXX 2 Kings LXX Isaiah to taunt,” “to reproach” ὀνειδίζειν ὀνειδίζειν“ לחרף Kgs 19:4 2 // Isa 37:4 blasphemed,” “have ἐβλασφήμησαν ὠνείδισάν“ גדפו Kgs 19:6 2 // Isa 37:6 blasphemed” to taunt,” “to reproach” ὀνειδίζειν ὀνειδίζειν“ לחרף Kgs 19:16 2 // Isa 37:17 you have taunted/ ὠνείδισας καὶ ὠνείδισας“ חרפת Kgs 19:22 2 reproached and ἐβλασφήμησας καὶ וגדפת Isa 37:23 // blasphemed” παρώξυνας you have (sent your ὠνείδισας ὠνείδισας“ חרפת Kgs 19:23 2 // Isa 37:24 servants) to taunt/ reproach” to defy,” “to revile” LXX ὀνειδίζειν“ לחרף Chr 32:17 2

rabbinic parallels to 1 Macc 7:34.22 The verbὀνειδίζω , however, the LXX equivalent in the above table, is absent from 1 Macc 7:34—and from 1 Maccabees as a חרף of in the original חרף whole.23 Abraham Kahana, Elia Artom, and Noam suggest that Hebrew of 1 Maccabees was rendered by a different Greek verb, δυσφημέω (“to speak ill of”) and its derivative noun, used in the same chapter 7 of 1 Maccabees:24

22 In the Palestinian Talmud and the integrated recension of the scholion to the Scroll of .(”to spurn” or “to slander“) נאץ ,Fasting, these words are accompanied by a third, similar verb .in 2 Kgs 19:3 // Isa 37:3 נאצה Indeed, note the noun 23 The noun ὄνειδος appears twice (1 Macc 4:45, 58)—both instances in reference to the /disgrace“) חרפה temple under the persecution—and was translated back into Hebrew as reproach”) by Kahana (Apocryphal Books, 2:117–18), Artom (Apocryphal Books, 1:31–32), and Rappaport (First Book of Maccabees, 164–65). The noun ὀνειδισμός also appears twice (1:39, shame”) by Kahana (2:101) and Artom“) כלמה In 1:39 it was translated back to Hebrew as .(10:70 by Rappaport (111). In 10:70, ὀνειδισμός appears together with κατάγελως חרפה and as ,(1:15) (“derision,” the noun derived from the second verb of 1 Macc 7:34, καταγελάω): εἰς καταγέλωτα into disgrace and contempt”) and“) לחרפה ובוז καὶ εἰς ὀνειδισμόν, translated by Artom (1:68) as an object of scorn“) ללעג ולקלס by Kahana (2:149) and Rappaport (265) by the biblical hendiadys and derision”), as in MT Pss 44:14 (LXX: μυκτηρισμὸς καὶ κατάγελως) and 79:4 (LXX: μυκτηρισμὸς ,an object of taunt and derision”; LXX“) לחרפה ולקלס καὶ χλευασμός). Compare with MT Jer 20:8 εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν … καὶ εἰς χλευασμόν). 24 Kahana, Apocryphal Books, 2:133; Artom, Apocryphal Books, 1:48–49; Vered Noam, “The Victory over Nicanor,” in Ilan et al., Josephus and the Rabbis, 1:168–91, here 179–80. On the familiarity of the Greek translator of 1 Maccabees with the LXX, and his frequent deviation from it, see Harry W. Ettelson, The Integrity of I Maccabees, Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 27 (New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1925), 311–30;

7:41: ἐδυσφήμησαν (“they blasphemed”), a clear allusion to Sennacherib’s (חרפו) emissaries 7:38: δυσφημίαι (“their blasphemies”), referring to Nicanor and his army 25(חרפות/חרופים) in 7:41, in summation of the relevant biblical חרףThe possible use of the verb ,in 7:38 חרף Assyrian speech, and, more importantly, the possible use of the lexeme as an intratextual reference to Nicanor’s speech in verse 34, would place further emphasis on the idiosyncrasy of the apparent absence of any Greek equivalent of .from verse 34 itself חרף Might any of the other three Greek verbs in 1 Macc 7:34 (leaving ἐμίανεν aside) -The fourth verb, with the accompanying adverb, ἐλάλησεν ὑπερη ?חרף ”represent“ φάνως, clearly denotes arrogant speech. The first two verbs—ἐμυκτήρισεν and κατε- γέλασεν—stress the jeer in Nicanor’s speech26 and are accordingly translated by a number of scholars.27 True, in the Bible (and as reflected in the NEB translation I and Bezalel Bar-Kochva, Judas Maccabaeus: The Jewish Struggle against the Seleucids (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 169. 25 The parallel word in 2 Macc 15:24 isβλασφημίαι . See also the reference to Nicanor as δύσφημος in 2 Macc 15:32. To complete the picture, notice the single verb (a participle) used by Josephus to paraphrase the entire verse of 1 Macc 7:34: ὁ δὲ βλασφημήσας αὐτούς (“he blasphemed Antiquity of the Jews in) חירפם them,” Ant. 12.10.5 §406), translated by Abraham Schalit as Hebrew [Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1944–1963], 3:69). Scholars debate whether Josephus used the Hebrew text of 1 Maccabees alongside its Greek translation; see Louis H. Feldman, “Josephus’ Portrayal of the Hasmoneans,” in Josephus and the History of the Greco-Roman Period: Studies in Memory of Morton Smith, ed. Fausto Parente and Joseph Sievers, StPB 41 (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 41–68, here 41 n. 3; Étienne Nodet, La crise maccabéenne: Historiographie juive et traditions bibliques, Josèphe et son temps 6 (Paris: Cerf, 2005), 415–23. It should be added that Rappaport First Book) נאצות but the plural noun in verse 38 as חרפו also translates the verb in 1 Macc 7:41 as of Maccabees, 217–18). 26 Compare with the verb ἐμπαίζω (“to mock”) in 1 Macc 9:26. 27 Kahana (Apocryphal Books, 2:133), Artom (Apocryphal Books, 1:48), and Rappaport (First ויהתל :Book of Maccabees, 216), translate them back into Hebrew as synonymous denoting scorn ”respectively. Scholz, Die Bücher der Makkabäer, 107: “spottete ,וילעג וישחק / התל, לעג / וילעג and “verlachte”; Emil Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments, 2 vols. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1900), 1:55, and Keil, Commentar über die Bücher der Makkabäer, 133: “verspottete und verlachte”; and Lawrence H. Schiffman, “1 Maccabees,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2013), 3:2769–2831, here 2795: “mocked and derided.” See also Tedesche, First Book of Maccabees, 143: “sneered and jeered”; Bartlett, First and Second Books of the Maccabees, 101: “mocked and jeered”; Bévenot, Die beiden Makkabäerbücher, 99: “verspottete” and “lachte”; Harrington, First and Second Maccabees, 48: “mocked and ridiculed”; and Goldstein, I Maccabees, 327: “mocked and laughed.” Cf. Abel, Les livres des Maccabées, 141: “se moqua” and “traita avec mépris”; and Francis Borchardt, The Torah in 1 Maccabees: A Literary Critical Approach to the Text, DCLS 19 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014), 277: “sneered and humiliated.”

”may include “taunt” or “derision חרףused in the above table), the semantic field of and the like.28 However, the LXX translates this verb almost exclusively as ὀνειδίζω,29 thus indicating a dominant understanding of this verb in the Second Temple period as “to reproach.” Note also two other verbs employed in the biblical Sennacherib affair to denote scoffing, in the response of the daughter of Zion to the Assyrians. In fact, the first verb of 1 Macc 7:34, ἐμυκτήρισεν, and the second of these two verbs, are identical:

Verse MT NEB/NKJV LXX 2 Kings LXX Isa ,she) disdains, laughs you ἐξουδένησεν, ἐφαύλισεν)“ בזה, לעגה Kgs 19:21 2 // Isa 37:22 to scorn / (has) despised, ἐμυκτήρισεν ἐμυκτήρισεν laughed you to scorn”

-from 1 Macc 7:34 remains. To sum up the argu חרףThus, the puzzling absence of ment so far: 1. The Nicanor story in 1 Maccabees is analogous to the biblical Sennacherib affair, including the corresponding, disparaging speech of the Assyrians and the Syrian (Seleucid) Nicanor. translated by the LXX as ὀνειδίζω) is central to this biblical) חרף The verb .2 to revile” or“) גדף Assyrian speech, where it is also associated with the verb “to blaspheme”). appears in the ancient rabbinic parallels to 1 Macc 7:34 (in חרף The verb .3 .(גדף conjunction with 4. The first two verbs employed in 1 Macc 7:34, ἐμυκτήρισεν and κατεγέλασεν, stress the jeer in Nicanor’s speech. This does not correspond to the under- at least as reflected in the LXX but perhaps already in the ,חרף standing of biblical Sennacherib affair as well. may have appeared in two other places in the Hebrew חרף The lexeme .5 original of the Nicanor story in 1 Macc 7 in reference to both speeches— that of the Assyrians (v. 41) and that of Nicanor (v. 38). The relevant Hebrew lexeme was translated in both instances into Greek with the verb δυσφημέω (“to speak ill of”) and its derivative noun.

”,II חרף“ .HALOT, s.v ;” חֶ רְ ָ פּ ה ,[ חָ רַ ף]“ .TDOT 5:209–15; BDB, s.vv ”,חרף“ ,See Ernst Kutsch 28 (”an object of taunt and derision“) לחרפה ולקלס and, as an example, the aforementioned hendiadys the disgrace of Egypt”) in Josh 5:9, see Ed Noort, “The Disgrace of“) חרפת מצרים in Jer 20:8. On Egypt: Joshua 5.9a and Its Context,” in The Wisdom of Egypt: Jewish, Early Christian, and Gnostic Essays in Honour of G. P. Luttikhuizen, ed. Anthony Hilhorst and George H. van Kooten, AGJU 59 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 3–19. in Abraham Even-Shoshan, A New Concordance of the Bible ”חרף“ Compare the entry 29 (Jerusalem: Kiryat Sefer, 1990), 401, with HRCS, s.v. “ὀνειδίζειν.”

חרף ,In light of the above, I suggest that, in the sequence of verbs in 1 Macc 7:34 was the third verb in the original Hebrew text.30 If that was the case, why did the Greek translator of 1 Maccabees choose to translate it here with μιαίνω?

?חנף Become חרף III. How Did

Perhaps a slight distortion of the script or a possible misreading led the Greek ,in 1 Macc 7:34. Misreadings are, after all חרף instead of חנף translator to read 7:29 32,(הרוו instead of הראו) 6:34 31,(יאסוף instead of יוסף) evident in 1 Macc 3:15 We 34.(חקקו instead of חקרו) and perhaps also 3:48 33,(אורבים instead of אויבים) are two of the four letters (ר) and resh (נ) should also remember that in Hebrew nun that comprise the group of liquid consonants (together with lamed and mem; sim- ilarly, λ, μ, ν, and ρ in Greek). As such, they are susceptible to phonological in-group interchange, affected by pronunciation rather than script.35 Notwithstanding the above, an inevitable question arises: is it plausible that to be out of context חנף the Greek translator of 1 Maccabees would not have sensed in 7:34?36 The answer is that perhaps something else suggested to the translator that

30 Regarding the possible declination of this root in the original Hebrew of verse 34, the that is, the past tense, whereas the integrated ,חירף Palestinian Talmud version here reads the present tense, and the Hebrew ,מחרף recension of the scholion to the Scroll of Fasting reads .(future tense denoting past) (Flusser, Josippon, 1:103) ויחרף Josippon has 31 Noted by Rappaport (First Book of Maccabees, 143), crediting Moshe Shwabe and Ezra Z. Melamed with this observation. 32 Noted by Ettelson (Integrity of I Maccabees, 309), crediting Julius Wellhausen. 33 Noted by Bar-Kochva (Judas Maccabaeus, 356), crediting Abraham Kahana. 34 Ibid., 252, crediting Alexander F. Kirkpatrick. For a similar confusion of these two verbs, .in Judg 5:14 as ἐξερευνῶντες מחקקים see the LXX rendering of from the MT and ,נ and ר Here are but three illustrative examples for the interchange of 35 LXX (for additional examples, see Friedrich Delitzsch, Die Lese- und Schreibfehler im Alten lit., “your ear”) instead) אזנך Testament [Berlin: de Gruyter, 1920], 112): (1) MT Deut 23:14 reads your waistband”), reflected in the LXX τῆς ζώνης σου, as the place where one should“) אזרך of to dash, mangle to“) רטש carry a digging tool; (2) the LXX uses ῥάσσω as one equivalent for to abandon”), which makes more“) נטש death”), but in MT Jer 23:33 and 39 the Hebrew verb is ,(“to show mercy“) רחם to comfort”) occasionally replaces“) נחם sense in the context; (3) the verb e.g., in MT Hos 11:8bβ, or Ezek 24:24a, and vice versa (see LXX Isa 12:1, 52:9, and Zech 1:17). to choose”), see Aloysius Fitzgerald, “The“) בחר to assay”) and“) בחן For the interchange of Interchange of L, N, and R in Biblical Hebrew,” JBL 97 (1978): 481–88, here 487–88, https://doi .org/10.2307/3265393; Shlomo Naeh, “From the Bible to the Talmud (and Back): Lexical Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic,” in Hebrew through the Ages: In Memory of Shoshana Bahat [Hebrew], ed. Moshe Bar-Asher (Jerusalem: Academy of the Hebrew Language, 1997), 133–49, here 136–37. I thank Noam Mizrahi for the latter reference. the“) הארץ is almost exclusively חנף In the Hebrew Bible, the direct object of the verb 36 land”) and not people (the exception, Dan 11:32, will be discussed below).

-thus overriding its potential mis ,חנף the relevant Hebrew verb here was indeed match. That “something” is 1 Macc 1:24b. as μιαίνω חנף Maccabees 1:24b and 1 Compare 1 Macc 1:24b (concerning Antiochus IV) with 1 Macc 7:34b (concerning Nicanor): 1:24b: καὶ ἐποίησε φονοκτονίαν καὶ ἐλάλησεν ὑπερηφανίαν μεγάλην and he caused pollution by bloodshed and spoke in great arrogance 7:34b: καὶ ἐμίανεν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐλάλησεν ὑπερηφάνως and he defiled them and spoke arrogantly The ending of both verses (underlined) is almost identical: “spoke in great arrogance,” and “spoke arrogantly.” Daniel Schwartz suggests that in verse 1:24b the Hebrew original of φονοκτονία (apparently an innovation of the Greek translator following Isa 32:6.37 Indeed, as ,חנף of 1 Maccabees) was a noun form of the root in 1 Macc 1:24b, in the Isaian verse this noun—describing a villain’s deed—is jux- taposed with the villain’s improper (i.e., deceptive) speech (directed against God): to practice ungodliness, to utter error against the“) לעשות חנף ולדבר אל ה׳ תועה Lord” NKJV). The possibility therefore exists that, in light of his own translation of 1 Macc 1:24b,38 the translator’s posited misreading in 7:34 was affected, or rein- spoke in arrogance” as a recurring combination“ + חנף forced, by his impression of in 1 Maccabees in relation to these two key Seleucid rivals to the Hasmoneans, Antiochus IV and Nicanor. The verb φονοκτονέω is attested prior to Christianity only in LXX Num 35:33 (two occurrences) and LXX Ps 105:38. In all three instances, it has the meaning “to pollute with murder or blood.”39 Since this meaning was clearly extreme and unsupported by the narrative of Nicanor’s confrontation with the elders and the

:(I Maccabees 1:24)” [Hebrew], Shnaton 13 (2002) נבל Daniel R. Schwartz, “Antiochus the 37 185–97, here 194; Eng. trans. “Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Jerusalem,” in Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to Bar Kokhba in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. David M. Goodblatt, Avital Pinnick, and Daniel R. Schwartz, STDJ 37 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 45–56, here 48. in Isa 32:6 as bloodshed but rather as ἄνομα חנףThe LXX, however, did not understand 38 TDOT ”,חנף“ ,in the Bible, see Klaus Seybold חנף lawless acts”). For the various meanings of“) 5:36–44. For its meaning in Daniel, see also n. 42 below. 39 See LSJ, s.v. “φονοκτονέω.” LXX Num 35:33: καὶ οὐ μὴ φονοκτονήσητε τὴν γῆν … τὸ γὰρ ,לא תחניפו את הארץ … כי הדם הוא יחניף את הארץ :ἇιμα τοῦτο φονοκτονεῖ τὴν γῆν; compare MT “You shall not pollute the land … for blood pollutes the land.” LXX Ps 105:38: καὶ ἐφονοκτονήθη ”.the land was polluted with blood“ ,ותחנף הארץ בדמים :ἡ γῆ ἐν τοῖς αἵμασι; compare MT 106:38 the land was“ ,והארץ חנפה) in Isa 24:5 חנף Symmachus also used φονοκτονέω to translate the verb polluted”); see Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt: Veterum interpretum graecorum in totum Vetus Testamentum fragmenta, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1875), 2:469.

This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase This article was published in JBL 138/4 (2019) 777–789, copyright © 2019 by the Society of Biblical Literature. To purchase copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in copies of this issue or to subscribe to JBL, please contact SBL Customer Service by phone at 866-727-9955 [toll-free in North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. North America] or 404-727-9498, by fax at 404-727-2419, or visit the online SBL Store at www.sbl-site.org. 788 Journal of Biblical Literature 138, no. 4 (2019) priests, it appears that the Greek translator of 1 Maccabees chose for 7:34 a verb that denotes defilement in general, namely, μιαίνω.40 There are two similar uses of in contexts that do not refer חנף μιαίνω in the LXX as a less-drastic equivalent for to bloodshed. In Jer 3:1, 2, the context is moral defilement of the land by adultery.41 /he will flatter“) ומרשיעי ברית יחניף :Referring to Antiochus IV, Dan 11:32 reads defile the violators of the covenant”). Those who violate the covenant are Jews who, under the religious persecution launched by the king, were induced to apostatize.42 The LXX employed μιαίνω, indicating that the translator understood the verb as referring to the defilement that results from this apostasy from the point of view of Jewish law.

IV. Summary

In the middle of a string of verbs that describe Nicanor’s speech, ἐμίανεν is, in all likelihood, an error. This is underscored by 1 Macc 7:36, which indicates that the priests were not defiled. First Maccabees 7:36 also refutes the suggestion that Nicanor’s saliva, a source of impurity due to the fact that he was a gentile, defiled the priests. This idea recurs in commentaries on 1 Maccabees, even though it is based on a later, rabbinic tale illustrating the concept of gentile impurity. Yet the concept of gentile impurity is otherwise unfamiliar to 1 Maccabees. Further- more, the ancient Hebrew versions of the same episode, in Scholion P to the Scroll of Fasting and in the Palestinian Talmud, suggest that the third verb in 1 Macc 7:34 must also have described Nicanor’s disparaging speech. in the derogatory חרף In light of the dominant role played by the Hebrew verb speech of the Assyrians as part of the biblical Sennacherib affair, which figures in the background of the Nicanor story in 1 Maccabees, and in light of this verb’s appearance in the parallels offered by the Palestinian Talmud and Scholion P to the Scroll of Fasting, as well as the possible occurrence of this lexeme in 1 Macc 7, including an intratextual reference (in v. 38) to verse 34, it would have been only reasonable for this verb to appear in 7:34. None of the other three Greek verbs in .חרף this verse apparently represents

40 Αnother Greek verb that denotes defilement, μολύνω, is used once in 1 Maccabees in 1:37 .in Jer 23:11 חנפוin the context of defilement by bloodshed. The LXX used this verb for 41 The same notion is repeated in Jer 3:9, but the relevant part of the verse is absent from the LXX. For variant ancient Greek translations that use φονοκτονέω in this verse, see Joseph Ziegler, Ieremias, SVTG 15 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1957), 162. 42 Indeed, Theodotion’s Greek translation has the verb ἐπάγω (“to induce/seduce”) here. This acquiring the sense ,חנף verse from Daniel, therefore, may represent the semantic development of of “to flatter.” See David Flusser, “Some of the Precepts of the Torah from Qumran (4QMMT) and the Benediction against the Heretics” [Hebrew], Tarbiz 61 (1992): 333–74, here 342.

I contend, therefore, that, in the original Hebrew, the third verb in 1 Macc 7:34 In addition to the possibility of yet .חנף read by the Greek translator as ,חרף was another innocent slight misreading on the part of this translator, or, perhaps, a in this position falls חנף phonological in-group interchange of consonants, reading in line with the translator’s understanding and treatment of a similar textual combination in 1 Macc 1:24b. Here, as suggested by Schwartz, the translator employed The verb φονοκτονέω, in the sense of “to .חנף φονοκτονία for the nominal form of pollute with murder or blood,” was clearly too severe in the context of Nicanor’s confrontation with the elders and the priests. Consequently, the Greek translator sought a semantically proximal verb on the same spectrum and opted for μιαίνω, which he employed on four additional occasions where it clearly refers to actual (i.e., nonverbal) defilement.